Hayward is a relatively large coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of California. With a population of 155,675 people and 39 associated neighborhoods, Hayward is the 34th largest community in California. Housing costs in Hayward are among some of the highest in the nation, although real estate prices here don't compare to real estate prices in the most expensive communities in California.Hayward is neither predominantly blue-collar nor white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Hayward is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Hayward who work in office and administrative support (11.27%), management occupations (9.17%), and sales jobs (8.45%). Also of interest is that Hayward has more people living here who work in computers and math than 95% of the places in the US. One interesting thing about the economy is that relatively large numbers of people worked from their home: 11.28% of the workforce. While this number may seem small overall, as a fraction of the total workforce this is high compared to the rest of the county. These workers are often telecommuters who work in knowledge-based, white-collar professions. For example, Silicon Valley has large numbers of people who telecommute. Other at-home workers may be self-employed people who operate small businesses out of their homes. Hayward is also nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery. In Hayward, however, the average commute to work is quite long. On average, people spend 34.33 minutes each day getting to work, which is significantly higher than the national average. One bright side is that local public transit is widely used, so it may be an option to avoid the headache of driving in the heavy traffic by leaving the car at home and taking transit. Although the majority of commuting trips in the city are by private automobile, Hayward is somewhat unusual for a city of its size for having a substantial number of people who use public transportation. For a lot of people, the subway helps to get to and from their jobs every morning, which benefits everyone in the Hayward area by reducing both traffic and air pollution.In terms of college education, Hayward is substantially better educated than the typical community in the nation, which has 21.84% of the adults holding a bachelor's degree or graduate degree: 31.48% of adults in Hayward have a college degree. The per capita income in Hayward in 2022 was $42,311, which is middle income relative to California, and upper middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $169,244 for a family of four. However, Hayward contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Hayward is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Hayward home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Hayward, accounting for 39.66% of the city’s residents (people of Hispanic or Latino origin can be of any race). The greatest number of Hayward residents report their race to be Asian, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Hayward include German, Irish, English, Italian, and Portuguese. In addition, Hayward has a lot of people living here who were born outside of the US (40.37%). The most common language spoken in Hayward is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and Tagalog.
